'We Need To Call The Police': Details Of Fairfield Mask Dispute

FAIRFIELD, CT — Emotions ran high as residents clashed with school officials over masking rules in the moments before Fairfield police were called to a recent Board of Education Policy Committee meeting, an audio recording of the meeting revealed.

Law enforcement on Tuesday responded to the school board offices following a heated dispute about the meeting’s face mask requirement. The committee had gathered in a small conference room, with members of the public listening to audio of the meeting in a larger overflow space, but about 30 minutes after the start of the meeting, a knocking sound could be heard in the recording, which was uploaded Thursday to YouTube.

Several people then explained to the committee that the discussion was difficult to hear in the overflow room and asked officials to move to a larger space. Chair Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly declined to relocate the meeting, citing technical challenges related to ensuring audio remained accessible to residents who had called in to listen.

“You also need masks, please,” she said.

“I’d love to see the science on the masks,” an unknown voice replied.

Shortly after, a motion was made to recess the meeting, as the debate between local officials and the public continued.

“If you’re in here, you need to have a mask on,” Maxon-Kennelly insisted.

The residents were not swayed.

“We’re here to protect our children and talk about why we shouldn’t be wearing masks,” one person said.

Another voice chimed in, noting all the residents present were vaccinated against the coronavirus, while Superintendent Mike Cummings said the building where the meeting was being held required masks.

Shortly after that, voices rose to an indistinguishable cacophony as many people spoke at once.

“I think we need to call the police,” someone said.

“This is not appropriate,” said another person.

Those comments were followed by a voice chanting, “Sheep! Sheep! Sheep! Sheep! Zombie sheep!”

Then, a slam could be heard, and a gasp.

Not long afterward, the recording cut to silence, with audio resuming more than 30 minutes later.

Maxon-Kennelly said after the meeting that district staff called law enforcement at the committee’s request. Fairfield parent and Representative Town Meeting member Kim Grant was among the group of about 10 unmasked people who approached the committee to complain about the audio. She and others in attendance said after the meeting that the adversarial conversation over masking mainly involved only two members of the public. About half of the roughly 20 residents in attendance approached the committee.

"Many parents did stay in the overflow room during the incident," Fairfield parent Katie Flynn, who was at the meeting, said in an email to Patch. "They were all not happy, the behavior was obviously causing a disruption and further tension and division. Many mentioned that as we waited for the meeting to resume."

None of the people who had been in the overflow space were wearing masks, according to Grant, but when police arrived and determined that masks were, in fact, required at the meeting, everyone in the crowd except one person agreed to comply, both Grant and police officials said. The woman who refused to put on a mask spoke briefly and then left.

The committee relocated to the larger room and resumed the meeting, which concluded with several emotional public comments from residents concerned about the state’s in-school mask mandate and the district’s handling of the rule.

“It’s not turning out OK, and I’m scared to death to send my 5-year-old to kindergarten this year,” Grant said, her voice breaking. “How do you make friends when you can’t see somebody’s face?”

Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive order requiring masks in school is set to stay in effect through Sept. 30.

“It’s unnatural, it’s not normal, none of this is normal, and none of this should be implied to our children to suck it up, and take this on the chin, and shoulder the burden for a disease that they have virtually no effect from,” said Melissa Longo, a Fairfield parent who expressed concern about the social and emotional toll pandemic protocols could have on her two young children.

“What am I supposed to tell my daughter? Both of my kids? Suck it up? Absolutely not. I’m going to be honest with you, I have never once put a mask on my child, and I am not about to start now, because this is not fair to them. It’s not fair to me as a parent.”

Members of the Fairfield Board of Education signed a letter to Lamont in June, asking, to no avail, that he stop the mask mandate. The same month, one Fairfield parent crowdfunded an effort to make and distribute 200 lawn signs demanding authorities, "Unmask our kids."

Fairfield students return to class Aug. 30 amid rising coronavirus cases and the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.

Jim Kuczo spoke Tuesday about the pandemic’s effect on his son, Kevin, who struggled with depression and died of suicide in February at the age of 17. Coronavirus prevention policies exacerbated Kevin’s struggle with his mental health, Jim said.

“My son did not die of COVID, but he died of COVID,” Jim said. “I pray that something doesn’t happen to other people’s family as what happened to my family.”